Katherine's Blog 2.0 http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/ Thin films, writing, small business, and random web flotsam en Copyright 2009 Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:51:35 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Shoe moves to other foot, whiplash ensues suddenly rediscovered the importance of checks and balances. ]]> http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2009/01/shoe_moves_to_other_foot_whipl.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2009/01/shoe_moves_to_other_foot_whipl.html politics Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:51:35 -0800 Just another day at the office This profile of Jon Favreau, President-elect Obama's chief speechwriter, is an interesting look at his process. Writing speeches for the soon-to-be Leader of the Free World is apparently not all that much different from the writing I do. The challenge is to keep The Muse from noticing the pressure and expectations, insane as they must be.]]> http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/12/just_another_day_at_the_office.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/12/just_another_day_at_the_office.html writing Fri, 19 Dec 2008 09:17:55 -0800 Where do we go from here? blog post for The Atlantic that captures, I think, much of the moral muddiness around the Bush administration's interrogation policies. As he says,
A term like "stress positions" sounds like one thing when it's sitting, bloodless, on a page; it sounds like something else when somebody dies from it.
Of course, people who use terms like "enhanced interrogation techniques" and "stress positions" do so exactly because of their bloodlessness, the filmy curtain they draw over what's really going on in places like Abu Ghraib. The photos from Abu Ghraib (benign introductory text, links to distressing images) yanked the curtain aside and forced Americans to see what was being done in their names. And now, having seen the photos, having seen the recently released Levin-McCain report (PDF), we have to decide what we want the new administration to do about it. It's tempting, for all the reasons Douthat gives, to quietly put the curtain back in place, tiptoe away, and try to pretend it never happened. We can do that, but if we do we lose an opportunity to regain our moral authority. We lose the right to pretend that our proud defense of human rights and the rule of law is anything other than a rich nation's luxury, which we will abandon whenever it gets in the way. Americans may want to move on, but the rest of the world is watching to see what our promises really mean.
Former Navy General Counsel Alberto Mora testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee in June 2008 that “there are serving U.S. flag-rank officers who maintain that the first and second identifiable causes of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq – as judged by their effectiveness in recruiting insurgent fighters into combat – are, respectively the symbols of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.” -- Levin-McCain report.
]]> http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/12/where_do_we_go_from_here.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/12/where_do_we_go_from_here.html civil liberties politics Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:36:16 -0800 Memes that deserve to die "depression-themed" merchandise is salable. First, it's not a depression if people actually have money to buy cutsie depression-themed junk, as opposed to, say, food, clothing, and shelter. Second, it's not a depression if people are able to see anything remotely humorous about the state of the economy or the possibility of a depression. I'll be kind and assume that those who see economic depression as a market opportunity simply don't know what they are talking about. And so I'll suggest that such people browse the Dorothea Lange archives rather than speculating on the sort of personality that might see bread lines and massive population displacement as a good thing. ]]> http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/12/memes_that_deserve_to_die.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/12/memes_that_deserve_to_die.html culture economics Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:48:47 -0800 TGIF (Almost) Mozart meets sidewalk performance art. (Video, with sound. Work-safe.) (Link by way of Andrew Sullivan.)]]> http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/11/tgif_almost.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/11/tgif_almost.html humor Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:00:27 -0800 And now for something different The Atlantic, has been running a Friday poetry feature. Intriguing, thought provoking, and worth a visit. ]]> http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/11/and_now_for_something_differen.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/11/and_now_for_something_differen.html creativity culture Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:04:05 -0800 January 20, 2009 Zimbabwe held elections. No, the real celebration of American democracy is Inauguration Day. For more than two hundred years, through wars, political scandals, brutally partisan campaigns and national tragedies, outgoing Presidents have seen their successors sworn in, and have quietly slipped back into their roles as mere citizens. On January 20, 2009, George W. Bush will do the same. ]]> http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/11/january_20_2009.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/11/january_20_2009.html politics Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:15:59 -0800 Raise a glass When you vote today (you are voting, right?), be nice to the poll workers. Poll work involves long hours, grumpy people, and brain-crushing tedium for not very much money. In spite of that, most of the poll workers I've encountered are genuinely trying to do a good job, and our democracy couldn't function without them. http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/11/raise_a_glass.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/11/raise_a_glass.html politics Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:47:30 -0800 Economic Crises 101 extensive reading list for those seeking a better understanding of the current financial crisis. Full disclosure: I've only read a handful of these myself. ]]> http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/10/economic_crises_101.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/10/economic_crises_101.html business Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:20:02 -0800 Change is coming James Meredith, the first black student at the University of Mississippi, enrolled in 1962 with the help of 5,000 federal troops. Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963. Equality was only a dream at that point, as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act weren't passed until 1964 and 1965, respectively. The 24th Amendment, prohibiting poll taxes in federal elections, was ratified in 1964. In 1967, when the Supreme Court struck down laws banning interracial marriage, such laws still existed in sixteen states. Just over forty years later, the son of such a marriage is the Democratic Party's nominee and a strong favorite to become the next president of the United States. Win or lose, it's a historic moment. Don't forget to vote. (Vote early if you can. Turnout is likely to shatter all records, so be prepared for long lines.) ]]> http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/10/change_is_coming.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/10/change_is_coming.html politics Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:42:01 -0800 Ink by the barrel steadily more unfavorable since a senior adviser attacked the New York Times. Now, attributing the negative coverage to McCain's attacks on the press is a bit simplistic. In the same period, McCain's poll numbers have dropped, he has attacked Obama, and the economic news has been uniformly bad, all of which might lead to negative coverage. Still, attacking the press for reporting unflattering facts (i.e. doing its job) is unlikely to improve your coverage. ]]> http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/10/ink_by_the_barrel.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/10/ink_by_the_barrel.html journalism politics Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:13:04 -0800 What deregulation looks like massive scale and over an extended period of time. Meanwhile, the government regulatory apparatus was either absent or corrupt, or both. Some of the largest offenders were exempt from government inspections under a self-regulation program. When children started getting sick, some of the suspicious products were recalled by individual companies, though without any explanation of the underlying problem or any coordinated effort to inform the public. Inquiries were suppressed in the runup to the Beijing Olympics. The whole mess came to light only when a foreign investor started to worry about its own liability -- after deferring to its Chinese partner for weeks -- and informed New Zealand's government. There are episodes like this in America's past, too. They are why the FDA and the USDA exist. It's unfair to suggest, as some commentators have, that the Chinese people are any less ethical than anyone else. The problem is that there is no way for the ethical Average Wen to hold the unethical minority accountable. No whistleblower protections, no aggressive personal injury lawyers, no elected officials accountable to the people. When a major embarrassment like this happens, accountability is imposed from the top down -- I'm sure a good number of midlevel bureaucrats will lose their jobs or their lives over this -- but the emphasis is on containing the embarrassment, not fixing the underlying problem. Bottom up accountability would go a long way to reducing the frequency and severity of such incidents. ]]> http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/10/what_deregulation_looks_like.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/10/what_deregulation_looks_like.html business globalization Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:05:19 -0800 Hang on to your sneakers failed to pass the House. CSPAN has the roll call. No word yet on when, or if, it will come up again, or what the next step might be. In the interim, this would be an excellent time to see how your Congressman voted and send thanks or concern as appropriate. ]]> http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/09/hang_on_to_your_sneakers.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/09/hang_on_to_your_sneakers.html business Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:13:24 -0800 Where to draw the line? Wall Street Journal explains how the decision to let Lehman Brothers fail turned out to be disastrously wrong. It was wrong because it turns out that no one knows which investors have exposure to which financial instruments. Including the investors themselves. It's something like a financial butterfly effect: a subprime loan defaulting in Cleveland can cause a storm in Hong Kong. That appears to be the logic behind the Treasury plan's focus on the underlying assets. If the bond secured by that subprime loan doesn't default -- or if the default is absorbed by the taxpayers -- then the damage to holders of related securities can be contained. We hope. Since no one knows how the various assets are connected, no one knows who the ultimate winners and losers will be. (Wall Street Journal links; subscription required.)]]> http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/09/where_to_draw_the_line.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/09/where_to_draw_the_line.html business economics Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:18:50 -0800 Elitist is as elitist does describe anyone. And let's skip over the question of why mediocrity is more acceptable in a president than in, say, a surgeon or an airline pilot. Would you want a doctor who bragged about being last in his class at med school? Instead, I'd like to look at the idea that attending a top school necessarily hangs that red 'E' around your neck. I can't say what the Ivies are like, but I did go to MIT, where any notion of one's personal specialness lasts about as long as it takes for the grades on the first exam to come back. Most MIT students were near the top of their high school class. Most will be merely average at MIT. Far from reinforcing arrogance, my time there was a four year lesson in humility. Do some people come out of top-tier schools convinced that they are God's gift to the world? Of course. But would those people be any less arrogant if they'd floated through a less challenging program with fewer intellectual peers? Somehow I doubt it. ]]> http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/09/elitist_is_as_elitist_does.html http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/blog/tfm/2008/09/elitist_is_as_elitist_does.html culture Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:47:35 -0800